[Anonymous]

[JWinter]

Happy New Year all

In the run up to Copenhagen, everyone got super excited about the world coming together to solve these important environmental issues, but now it is the new year and we have had Christmas and New Year festivities – all that was discussed seems a long way away.

I don’t want to be a cynic but I don’t think enough will come out of the summit. It would be good if at least the carbon emissions from everyone travelling to the summit were neutralised but with all the airlines, bottled water and hotel rooms I think even that is going to be a push.

The problem is that as we all know we are inherently selfish and the arguments just won’t stand up when money and power are involved. We have all agreed that there is a problem but to actually stand up and solve that problem is going to take a lot of action – not just words.

The main issue is that, for example, in the case of business travel, we will always travel and as with leisure travel- it is only affected by monetary concern, not concern for the environment. Airlines I am sure will do what they have to do – not what they want to do – and new, more environmentally friendly aircraft are a good start but lets not kid ourselves that this is anything to do with the environment. It will save airlines money in the longrun.

To solve a problem you need to understand it. It’s like people who say to smokers “why do you smoke? It’s bad for you”. This argument will never work because smokers don’t smoke because it is bad for them. They smoke because they are addicted.

If the same is applied to environmental issues then the question should not be “why are we travelling when it is bad for the world?” – we are not doing it becasue it is bad for the world, we are doing it because we want to make money and make connections with other people. So by that logic we need to address this behaviour – and unfortunately it is in human nature to want to be ahead and make money and human nature to want to connect with other people.

It is as frustrating – we all know what we should do but this is a case of what we want to do and as such the real issues will go out of the window.

[MarcusUK]

I try t make my contribution by choosing Airlines that have an ethical policy for the environment, as well as Airports & the planes themselves.

Flying new aircraft lessens the carbon footprint by approx 25%, Aircraft with winglets added save 3% fuel. KLM for eg recycle 90% of all on board paper, recycle when collecting all service items at the trolley ready for collection. They also have steeper take off policies to save fuel, & non use of reverse engines on landing .
Schipol has variable runways, to balance the noise & damage to The locality, solar or electric charged powered steps & vehicles.

Who you choose to fly, & which aircraft means you support or don’t, a business & their efforts.

[flyingforce]

I think the main issue is we all think we are more important than we really are. Climate change is a natural course of action for mother nature. Look back at the tables of ice ages / temperatures over thousands of years. For example this:

http://www.friendsofscience.org/assets/documents/FOS%20Essay/HoloceneOptimumTemperature.jpg

i just found on google.

Do you see a pattern? up down up down go the temperatures and they didn’t have planes in the middle ages. Do you really think that by offsetting anything we do will change what will naturally occur? I mean come on all of us here will be long gone as will our grandchildren’s grandchildren when mother nature decides to throw us into the next ice age or the next period of heat… global warming…mmm we don’t have enough solid evidence to suggest anything we did do and will do now can change this from happening.

With the weather in the UK as it is all the global warming experts have gone extremely quiet. I’m not saying we shouldn’t try and save the planet but the planet will get rid of us through natural selection when we have messed around with it enough. It’s an evolution revolution.

[fasttracker]

I don’t think we should give up on green issue yet. We are trying to change the way we behave – so let’s keep trying and see what happens. There’s nothing wrong with being green.

[Free Lance]

It is true that the Earth goes through cycles of cool and warm periods over the centuries, but if you look at this BBC report, it clearly presents scientific data the suggests there is a strong correlation between C02 levels and development since the industrial revolution. The increase we are experiencing in C02 is a significantly higher peak than any of
those in the last 800,000 years. And it looks to be going up and up.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/sci_tech/2009/copenhagen/8386319.stm

The fact that man came along, and has been minding his own business until the Industrial Revolution kicked off a couple of hundred years ago resulting in dramatic changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, and transport, which in turn, resulted in a surge in global emissions of C02 – the like of which the planet has never known, is unprecedented.

Climate change is a natural phenomenon. But to deny that dangerous climate change is not occurring as a result of our burning fossil fuels and destruction of rainforests (note that every month we lose an area the size of Belize), for example, is to deny the fundamental scientific principle of cause and effect.

Sure, I agree that the average person will make little difference paying for carbon offsetting, but people like us who do a lot of flying, do have a responsibility to try and keep things in balance. If we all did it, or if there really was an effective environmental tax, then I am sure it would make a difference. At the end of the day, though, it’s the big polluters who have to change their ways – but at least as individuals we can put pressure on them to do so.

[Author]

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